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5 posts from March 2008

March 29, 2008

I just completed a poster for the Neighborhood Arts Festival, which will be turning 40 this Year. This piece was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission. The way I developed this piece was to start with a monoprint. The background is a close up zoom of a monoprint I did in Green and Yellow Hues. I then drew the characters individually and then developed the final composition.

In 1967, a group of artists and arts activists brought a radical notion to the San Francisco Arts Commission: fund artists and arts organizations to work in neighborhood and community settings. The program was called the Neighborhood Arts Program. Its tagline was, “Nurturing arts for and by the people where they live and work.”

To honor the 40th anniversary of the program (now called the Community Arts and Education Program), the Neighborhood Arts Festival will feature a series of free events showcasing the dynamic artistic and cultural legacy that defines San Francisco neighborhoods today. The festival takes place in venues throughout San Francisco that honor the past including San Francisco State University, International Hotel

The event will take place April 21 - May 3, 2008. Expect two weeks of musical performances; a reading with San Francisco literati, including poet laureates past and present; lively panel discussions; and even a speed dating session matching up artists with community organizations.

Featured Neighborhood Arts Festival events include:

The Money and the Madness: Is it possible to make it big as an artist without selling out? Individual artists discuss the pros and cons of accepting public and private funds.Wednesday, April 23; 7 - 9pmInternational Hotel Manilatown Center848 Kearny Street, San Francisco*** I WILL BE PART OF THIS PANEL

March 27, 2008

This past Tuesday, March 25th, I participated in a panel, "THE POLITICAL IS PERSONAL: Contemporary Women Artists and Political Expression," which took place at the Commonwealth Club.

The event was organized by the California Chapter of ArtTable to celebrate March as the Month of the Woman, to acknowledge the 2008 presidential election, and to contribute to the current global re-evaluation of the legacy of feminist art-making.I was honored to present with other fabulous woman artists, curators, and cultural workers. The breadth of work encompassed a range of artistic practices, from activist performance and public interventionist tactics, to documentary filmmaking that exposes government censorship/ persecution of artistic expression, to collaborative projects that dramatize the economic consequences of globalization.

The program opened with a keynote speech by performance artist/choreographer/ dancer Aleta Hayes of Stanford University. The Panel Discussion consisted of visual artists:

Lynn Hershman Leeso, an artist who has worked extensively in photography, video, film and installation. She showed clips of an upcoming documentary film about Feminist Art.

Elizabeth Stephens Check out her project, Love Art Lab, about an artist couple committed to doing projects that explore, generate, celebrate and glorify love. Each year they orchestrate one or more interactive performance art weddings in collaboration with various national and international
communities, then display the ephemera in art galleries.

Stephanie Syjuco, an artist who is participating in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts exhibit, The Way we Rhyme. In her artist statement she writes, "I have focused my work on issues of “illicit capitalism”—bootlegs, knock-offs, and the reworked commodity..."

This event coincided with exhibitions of work by contemporary women artists at several Bay Area venues including Mills College Art Museum, New Langton Arts, Queen’s Nails Annex, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the International Museum of Women, which collectively re-consider the legacy of earlier feminist art making.

The picture above, from left to right: Jessica Tully, Stephanie Syjuco, and myself.

March 14, 2008

I had committed to naming all of my 2008 pieces after 80's songs and that has been going well. I have been hanging out with a photographer who has inspired me to be more open about my own photography. One thing I am really into is photography that would lean more towards eroticism. This is something I have been experimenting with. This particular piece contains the lyrics from the song BLUE MONDAY by New Order.

March 10, 2008

I designed this new poster last month, in February. I have had a few commissions this year, and the work has been so much that I can barely keep up with my blog. Please excuse the delay. This poster was a commissioned for the 23rd Annual Empowering Women of Color Conference (EWOCC). EWOCC is recognized to be one of the longest running conferences in the nation that addresses the needs and concerns of women of color. The conference brings together cutting edge women of color activists such as Angela Davis, Elaine Brown, Cherrie Moraga, Gina Palcado and Chrystos with Bay Area community leaders and academics (especially students) to discuss and strategize ways of impacting the current issues facing women of color.

For this particular piece, my task was to explore the theme of creativity by focusing on art as an expression of a woman's life and identity. I wanted to show women in different disciplines as well as the woman activist. I brainstormed about the idea for weeks, and then, one night in bed, I decided to mirror the theme in the adjacent poster, developed by a Cuban artist whose name escapes me at the moment. This poster was developed for International Woman's Day.

I decided to create a piece that essentially held the same posture, but with different scenarios and different items in the woman's hands. I opted to photograph myself in different clothes and accessories. Sometimes I wear glasses, sometimes I don't. I pulled out my hat and my bandana. That day, I had a few visitors from Los Angeles, so I was able to stay pretty still while being photographed by my friend Yem. I could have never done this piece alone, the pose would not have been as exact.

I was so happy with how this piece turned out, that I decided to also make it a silkcreen without the text. Instead, the text I will use is by Amilcar Cabral, "Culture contains the seed of resistance which blossoms into the flower of liberation.â

Here are some photos from the event. Special thanks to Zelideth Maria Rivas for getting me these photos and for inviting me to develop the art for this year's conference.

March 9, 2008

I will be interviewing Peruvian filmmaker, Ann Kaneko, this Friday, March 14th, on KPFA's 94.1 Hard Knock Radio. Even if you are not in the Bay Area, you can download the show afterwards by clicking here.

Ann Kaneko is a filmmaker and artist committed to exploring and presenting the diverse experiences of people outside the mainstream. Fluent in English, Japanese, and Spanish, she recently completed this film with the support of a Fulbright Fellowship. We will be discussing her film, AGAINST THE GRAIN: An Artist's Survival Guide to Perú, a 65 min. documentary in Spanish, English, Japanese and Quechua. For every artist, the need to create and be heard is as basic as food and shelter. But what happens when you live in a country where the state clamps down on free thinkers, forcing artists to censure themselves?

Synopsis: In 1989, Alfredo Márquez used an image of Mao in an artwork. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. For every artist, the need to create and be heard is as basic as food and shelter. But what happens when you live in a country where the state clamps down on free thinkers, forcing artists to censure themselves? Four Peruvian visual artists, including Márquez, defy this tyranny through their work and ignite change, challenging ordinary people to speak out. These struggles and commitments raise the question: Is freedom of expression a right or a privilege?

Spanning two decades of corrupt governments and inept leaders, this film tells the story of four inspiring artists: Claudio Jiménez Quispe flees his home in Ayacucho because of insurgency with the Shining Path, a Maoist rebel group. He chronicles this violence in his retablos, traditional wooden display boxes. Alfredo Márquez, active in the 1980s underground punk scene, produces bold, political images despite four years of unjust imprisonment. With the downfall of former president Alberto Fujimori, critics targeted Japanese Peruvians like Eduardo Tokeshi, yet he reaffirms his identity through a series of red and white Peruvian flags. Natalia Iguíñiz provokes the Catholic Church and the socially conservative middle class with controversial images that challenge gender and class. Each artist teaches us what it means to persevere and make art in a country like Perú.

Highlighting amazing contemporary Peruvian artwork, this film combines gritty Super 8 with raw verité footage. It also features music by iconic Peruvian bands, Leusemia and Uchpa, and Los Angeles indie rockers, Pilar Díaz and David Green, of los abandoned.